Ancient Literary Culture and Meals in the Greco-Roman World: The Role of Reading During Ancient Symposia and its Relevance for the New Testament

Abstract

Was reading literary texts common during ancient symposia? What is the relationship between reading and other forms of dinner entertainment? Was the meal the common place for the so-called recitatio, the reading of unpublished literary works by its authors? Can we assume that biblical texts were read during early Christian meals? The paper addresses these questions by giving an overview of the relevant Greco-Roman sources which refer to reading practices during ancient meals. It will be shown that the symposium was not the primary social setting for reading longer literary texts. On the contrary, one can detect a convention to read only short portions of literary texts, serving as a stimulus for table talk. These findings challenge the assumptions of so-called Biblical Performance Criticism on the one hand, and on the other have significant impact for the question of the primary setting of reading longer New Testament texts, as well as for the development of the New Testament Canon.